Earth - what's it like?

[Willie Dewitt]

In my current games using books 1-3 of CT, I'm going with the Dumarest book's "Earth is a myth/legend" idea. But in reading about later Trav settings I see it is an actual known location.

So, in later Traveller editions, or even just in your campaign whether it has been visited by characters or not, what's it like? Ball of dirt with ancient ruins? A backward polluted planet but with some civilization? Spotted with overcrowded and well-lived in cities such as Blade Runner? Or an advanced planet with gleaming cities and well-run society? Something else?

Purely curious about official and non-official takes on our homeworld.

 

[kilemall]

Well, in the OTU, Earth gets invaded by the Imperium specifically to put paid to the invincible planet unconquerable people meme, a political decision. The Solomani make it an Alamo, and it's a game-

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6919/invasion-earth

If you bought the FFE CD-ROM you have it on there and you can look over the map of Earth.

The Traveller wiki entry-

http://wiki.travellerrpg.com/Terra_(SR_1827)_(world)


IMTU, Earth was abandoned due to a metaplague, then a deal was struck between the surviving nations and the pharmabanks, and the Earth is now a heritage park/grav nursery/genetic preserve, with anyone living on it permanently required to stay at TL3.

Everyone else that has not 'moved on' is living in million person orbital cities, built with moon tailings left over from He3 mining, fused together in solar foundries.

So semi-barbarian action, smuggling, ruins robbing, the risk of plague laying under some forgotten rock, and kid's holiday before they have to go to work in space.

 

[flykiller]

imtu I just say that the collapse of the 2i never affected the terran near-colonies. terra simply set up the "solomani sphere" and makes no attempt to rule beyond that. they explore, they investigate, they may intervene, but that's all. but everything I've ever done is in the spinward marches so it's never played a role in any game I've run.

 

[GypsyComet]

imtu I just say that the collapse of the 2i never affected the terran near-colonies.

The collapse of the Rule of Man started as a banking system failure, and it is Canon that a number of the worlds around Terra grouped together as the collapse dragged down the rest of the RoM. This local unity came in handy when the Aslan emerged and started claiming territory.

 

[aramis]

Well, in the OTU, Earth gets invaded by the Imperium specifically to put paid to the invincible planet unconquerable people meme, a political decision. The Solomani make it an Alamo, and it's a game-

https://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/6919/invasion-earth

Keep in mind: That map is 990, before the invasion, and before 110+ years of Imperial Marine Occupation. TD15 has more on Earth.

 

[Condottiere]

You could make it a Red Zone: no one in, no one out.

But one thing that strengthened the Solomani Sphere was the Vilani coup d'etat at Capital, that made those that felt disenfranchised to divert their capital of resources and capabilities to the Cause.

 

[Spinward Scout]

Earth - what's it like?

Mostly harmless.

Of course, that's unOfficial.

 

[whartung]

I'm going with the Dumarest book's "Earth is a myth/legend" idea.

"Earth, Dirt, something like that." - J. diGriz

 

[Condottiere]

Terran tradition demands maintaining a minimum pool of dolphins, like the ravens in the Tower.

 

[Spenser TR]

For what it's worth, the old RPG magazine Dragon has an article about Luna ( Earth's moon ) in issue #87, page 75 penned by Mr. Miller.

This article was my first exposure to Traveller, and I was awed. I was also 14.

 

[Willie Dewitt]

Let me ask a semi-related question to help me wrap my mind around the state of our home orb at the time of my game (or any other).

Most campaigns take place in the 3rd Imperium, right? App. how many years (in the thousands I guess) has passed since our modern day? Without much exposure to later CT materials, I'm at a bit of a loss without spending hours online sussing it out, or buying more material.

Though my setting won't fully fit within the standard Trav material (I don't have known sentient alien species, for one thing), I do have a central Imperium-like power at the core worlds. I call it The Continuum (just like the sound of it), and I consider it a time sort of between greater human empires. Things still run by ruling noble houses and corporations (semi-committees, parliaments, etc) along the lines of a Laansraad, without a ruling single emperor. I keep it sort of obscure, and as my campaign is set out on the frontier it only comes up when the noble character (a Marquis) wants more info on his family. I'm thinking it would be something like 2-3 thousand years since our time, but am I low balling it? Just wondering as it might help me decide on the state of my own particular, mysterious and lost Earth.

 

[Xerxeskingofking]

Let me ask a semi-related question to help me wrap my mind around the state of our home orb at the time of my game (or any other).

Most campaigns take place in the 3rd Imperium, right? App. how many years (in the thousands I guess) has passed since our modern day? Without much exposure to later CT materials, I'm at a bit of a loss without spending hours online sussing it out, or buying more material.

Though my setting won't fully fit within the standard Trav material (I don't have known sentient alien species, for one thing), I do have a central Imperium-like power at the core worlds. I call it The Continuum (just like the sound of it), and I consider it a time sort of between greater human empires. Things still run by ruling noble houses and corporations (semi-committees, parliaments, etc) along the lines of a Laansraad, without a ruling single emperor. I keep it sort of obscure, and as my campaign is set out on the frontier it only comes up when the noble character (a Marquis) wants more info on his family. I'm thinking it would be something like 2-3 thousand years since our time, but am I low balling it? Just wondering as it might help me decide on the state of my own particular, mysterious and lost Earth.

the traveller wiki:

"According to this calendar, 001-1120 is equivalent to April 14, 5640 A.D."

that's using the standard 3rd imperium calendar and setting.


on the subject of your traveller setting, don't sweat it, as their are a lot of players to have done something similar, and many more who have played about with the "canon" setting to better suit their own plans.

I know their are a few other pieces of flavour text that give explicit AD and imperial dates that let you work out the date. Here is a quick chronology of the Official Traveller Universe (OTU), form which you can borrow ideas for Your Traveller Universe (YTU).

 

[aramis]

Let me ask a semi-related question to help me wrap my mind around the state of our home orb at the time of my game (or any other).

Most campaigns take place in the 3rd Imperium, right? App. how many years (in the thousands I guess) has passed since our modern day? Without much exposure to later CT materials, I'm at a bit of a loss without spending hours online sussing it out, or buying more material.

Though my setting won't fully fit within the standard Trav material (I don't have known sentient alien species, for one thing), I do have a central Imperium-like power at the core worlds. I call it The Continuum (just like the sound of it), and I consider it a time sort of between greater human empires. Things still run by ruling noble houses and corporations (semi-committees, parliaments, etc) along the lines of a Laansraad, without a ruling single emperor. I keep it sort of obscure, and as my campaign is set out on the frontier it only comes up when the noble character (a Marquis) wants more info on his family. I'm thinking it would be something like 2-3 thousand years since our time, but am I low balling it? Just wondering as it might help me decide on the state of my own particular, mysterious and lost Earth.

Per AM: Solomani...

–2508 UNSCA Established (p. 12)
​

That would be some point after 1985 and before 2060. (p. 4)

Per MT RC

–2431 Solomani discover Jump Drive
–2408 1st Interstellar War ends.

The Solomani year 5641 corresponds to the Imperial date 1120.​

Subtract 2016 from that... 5641-2016=3635 Terran years of 365.24 days... 2016 is –2502 3IY... Which means we diverged 6 years ago.

 

[flykiller]

on the subject of your traveller setting, don't sweat it

the more sweat you put into your setting, the easier your games will be. view the "canon" as a tool box of "helpful suggestions" - there's a lot of great stuff in canon but inevitably your game will diverge from canon and be your own creation, so take what saves you time and work and happily leave the rest.

 

[Willie Dewitt]

5641-2016=3635 Terran years of 365.24 days... 2016 is –2502 3IY... Which means we diverged 6 years ago.

OK, so I'm not too far off in the years. I generally tend to think along the lines of how long ago ancient Greece or Egypt was, and how much has changed. So over 3000 years or so, there are a lot of similarities among things human, but not so far in the future where everything seems different (like in Dune, which is like...20,000 years hence?

Interesting to read in the Wiki history link about how there are different canon's for the published material.

Mostly in my setting the "Scattering" type occurrences that got humanity all over the galaxy was just one colony after another moving further and further apart, many communities rising and falling in tech and trade over the centuries, and every now and again local powers taking over and starting little Empires, until the more widespread and larger Empires with true galactic power (such as the Imperiums, I imagine) would come along and get all that good long distance capitalism going and all the tropes Traveller is known for made part of established human societies galaxy-wide.

All without major alien species being involved, and that being probably the thing that sets my setting apart from the published stuff. Lack of aliens. But I like that things are far enough in the future where a Free Trader could stumble upon a human society on a far away lonely planet that has been there long enough to evolve away from regular humans. Tall and elf-like on low grav worlds, short and dwarf like from high gravity (if you ever read the original Guardians of The Galaxy stuff from the 70's, you'll have seen that the major characters had appearances and abilities based on the conditions of the planets they grew up on). Maybe humans turned green by environmental conditions. But yeah, no involvement of sentient aliens in anything of human history. No ancients (probably).

 

[Limburger59]

For what it's worth, the old RPG magazine Dragon has an article about Luna ( Earth's moon ) in issue #87, page 75 penned by Mr. Miller.

This article was my first exposure to Traveller, and I was awed. I was also 14.

Thank you for the reminder! I went to http://www.annarchive.com/files/Drmg087.pdf and reread the article.

 

[BlackBat242]

Terran tradition demands maintaining a minimum pool of dolphins, like the ravens in the Tower.

JTAS #6 & BoJTAS #2 has Tursiops galactis. This is a 2nd-Imp genetically modified Atlantic Bottlenose Dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) - enhanced for greater hardiness/disease resistance and improved echolocation. They speak their own language (designed for them so that they could communicate complex/technical information, and so that humans who learn it can communicate effectively with them).

They normally have available "waldo" units (a rig that straps to their bodies providing "arms" and grav harnesses - and special fully-equipped "vacc suits" are available for both in-space and planetary use.


The write-up appears again (with more detail) in The Traveller Digest #13 (MegaTraveller), with the species spelling corrected to Tursiops galactus.

 

[aramis]

the more sweat you put into your setting, the easier your games will be. view the "canon" as a tool box of "helpful suggestions" - there's a lot of great stuff in canon but inevitably your game will diverge from canon and be your own creation, so take what saves you time and work and happily leave the rest.

Not true. Often, too much prep leads to "Now where did I put those notes?" instead of better play.

In fact, one of Marc's principles in GMing is "MOARN" - Map Only As Really Needed". The same goes for lots of other elements.

There's canon galore on the Marches; for people who can recall it (or where to find it) on demand, more prep is in fact better for sticking to canon... but for others, it can become overwhelming. And not everyone is going to be comfortable with "5 systems a session" montages....

 

[Spenser TR]

Thank you for the reminder! ...

No sweat. I would have posted that link - I found those archives a few months ago and I dearly love going through the old Dragons - but I wasn't sure it was cool to do so, or if that archive is "legit." I'm still fairly new here. But that article and how it framed Traveller's setting for me knocked me of my feed and started a long appreciation.

 

[ShapeShifter]

IMTU, a charred and lifeless husk of a planet, the site of an ancient conflict, now silent...but harbouring a deep, dark secret....